Thursday, 20 November 2014

Chemical testing in mosses

Something I'm used to in the land of fungi, and maybe even in Lichens (though I have yet to do it), I didn't know that chemical tests can also be done on mosses. Trying to bring to ground a reddening moss from Carlingnose (which I fancy to be Didymodon fallax) I uncovered this little gem of a factoid from N.America.

Bryoerythrophyllum and Didymodon vinealis group test red with KOH, while Barbula test yellow!

Is it reasonable to assume that you are just speeding up the natural reddening process?